By Sudha Dixit

Against the noble opinions of so-called humanitarians, I always upheld death penalty for rapists. Rape cannot be  and  is not done by a normal person. I am, here, not talking about consensual  incidents . Rape is forced, brutal and unwanted. It is done by a pervert. It is done by an inhuman individual. An inhuman person does not have right to live if he cannot respect fellow human beings ; especially  the  modesty of women. Hence the death sentence.

A Pandora box  of horror has been opened in Bihar. A gruesome story of children, aged between seven to fourteen years, being regularly raped in a shelter home. The nauseating  fact being  the rapists belong to powerful class of politicians. Men in power, be it corporate sector or any other place, most often try to take advantage of the situation and exploit subordinate  women. Some do it to wield power and others do it to satisfy their lust. The so called Godmen have  done it for lust. Even within the four walls of home, too, women are not often safe.

I will not discuss the psychology  or philosophy  of rape here. I am appalled by   revelation of Bihar episode. A shelter home which is established for the protection of homeless, minor children, has been used for sexually exploiting them , that too by the guardians of  society. A case of fence eating crop. Corruption is at its zenith in India but using an asylum as unpaid brothel is the limit.

We Indians are very sentimental people. We worship trees, snakes, stone, rivers etc, which very well from ecological point of view. We go to the extent of revering our cows so much that we kill the person suspected of slaughtering  a cow. Even innocent persons also fall victim in case of fake rumour . Now, these people who lynch are misguided, uneducated, and emotionally gullible mob. The pseudo intellectuals  simply pooh pooh about them, but when it comes to capital sentence for a rarest of rare kind of crime like rape, they  start voicing their opinion about dignity of human life. They  forget all about the dignity of a woman’s modesty and her trauma. Now, coming back to the lynching of cow killers, I would like to ask all Indians “  are cows more important than our girls ?” The offenders ,here, are not common culprits but highly  placed politicians.  This makes the  offense more than “rarest of rare”. So what should be solution ? No imprisonment for life, no hanging till death. The  punishment should be exemplary . All these politician  should be lynched by mob. We need – not cow vigilante but people  conscious of women’s  dignity and safeguard. I would be first person to throw  first stone.

About the Author

Sudha Dixit is a writer and poet. She currently lives in Bangalore and had a career in real estate spanning over 15 years. She is a graduate of Aligarh Muslim University, Luknow University and Banaras Hindu University. Her articles and poems frequently appears in various online journals and magazines.